Dear Abhinav, 

Please find our responses below:

==Conference==

Hello,

(a)    Did CIS-A2K organize a conference/meetup in Bengaluru this summer?:

Yes, we organised a WMCON India 2018 as per our proposal [1] that was submitted to the FDC in March 2017.

 

(b)   How were the delegates selected and which communities were invited?

The delegates were not selected by CIS. Participants invited/selected by WMF to participate in WMCON 2018 [2] in Berlin were invited to this meeting. User Group representatives who will be participating in WMCON 2019 (residing in Bangalore) were invited to participate as well.

 

(c)    For all those communities who were invited (based on your response to part b) was an official notification sent via village pump, mailing list, reaching out to User Group representatives?

As the participants were already selected by another affiliate of WMF, we did not want to reinvent the process and hence sent them personal emails as invite to this conference. We apologise for not sending out the event agenda and details about the event on mailing list and village pump of all the Indic communities.

 

(d)   Is there a legitimate reason to be non-transparent in the process?

 

Our intention was not to be ‘non transparent’, the participant list was put up by WMDE Conference organising team  and we invited only those people whose name featured in the official participant list. Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, CIS and Ananth Subray, Program Associate, A2K, Subhashish Panigrahi, representing Odia User group and Dr. U.B. Pavanaja, representing Karavali Wikimedians User Group were the only participants who were present whose name was not on the Participants list.

 

(e)    When a former CIS-A2K staff informed you about not maintaining transparency why was still no heed paid to it (if part d of the question is NO)?

I would like to reiterate that our intention was not to be ‘non-transparent’. A2K team apologises for not sending out adequate information to communities and requisite channels of communication. We will strive to improve our communication with the community for all of our events.

 

(f)     Can reports, learning patterns etc be shared with the community?

There is a meta page that had been created but has not been completed. We will priorotise the reporting of this event and revert with relevant updates.

 

(g)    How much funds were involved?

We used an approximate amount of INR.2 lakh for this event. Major expenses were incurred in arranging transport and hospitality.

 

(h)   What were the responsibilities of different CIS-A2K staff during the workshop?

Four members of the CIS-A2K team participated in the meeting.

Mr. Sunil Abraham, Executive Director was the chief facilitator on Day 1.

Tanveer Hasan and Tito Dutta were organisers and co-facilitators for the conversations for both days.

Ananth Subray attended the event to coordinate logistics and reimbursements.  

==Reports==

(a)    What has been stopping CIS-A2K to share their monthly reports on the mailing list and their Report Section of Wikimedia Meta?

We have defaulted on our newsletter because of the exit of our communications officer.  All the reports are updated here [3]. We will also update reports here [4] at the earliest.

 

(b)   Can we hear about the reports, shortly?

We will do our best to update reports by the end of this month.


[1]. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Work_plan_July_2017_-_June_2018/Skill_Building_Initiatives#Wikimedia_India_conference_2018

[2]. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2018/Participants%27_List

[3]. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports

[4]. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Reports



Regards, 

ಭಾನು, ಆಗ 5, 2018 ರಂದು 07:22 ಪೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ ಸಮಯಕ್ಕೆ ರಂದು Abhinav srivastava <abhinav619@gmail.com> ಅವರು ಬರೆದಿದ್ದಾರೆ:
Thank You Tito for your mail. 

I would request you to address the issues within 10 days from now. This is just a request. 

Also, one of your colleagues and also my friend informed me that he wanted to reply but his e-mail is being moderated or blacklisted. I have taken this issue with the mailing list admins and the admins have looked into the issue clarifying the said collegeue wasn’t moderated or blacklisted. In case, any issue still arises, please ping me and I will do my best to settle this. 

Thank You for writing back. 

Abhinav

On Sunday, August 5, 2018, Tito Dutta <trulytito@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Abhinav,
On behalf of the team, I confirm that we have received your questions. Thanks for these questions.
We have a hectic schedule right now because of few things such as CIS (the main institution's) strategy meet, staff transition, grant report, and some other works.

Transparency and accountability  are very important topics. If things are not clear for a couple of events, we must work on it.

Some other member or I'll get back with answers in a few days.

(I am cc-ing Sunil Abraham, ED, of the institution, in this email)

Thanks
Tito Dutta
Note: If I don't reply to your email in 2 days, please feel free to remind me over email or phone call.


On Fri, 3 Aug 2018 at 13:47, Abhinav srivastava <abhinav619@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Friends From CIS-A2K,

 

I am bringing up a discussion based on few of the concerns expressed on the other mail thread. I would like to acknowledge on record, the past few years CIS-A2K has reached out to communities (besides Focussed Language Area) much more effectively. I may be the first person to say this publicly but I am sure many more would echo my views here.

 

Now what concerns me and something CIS-A2K already knows, when the community has started acknowledging your work much more, CIS-A2K has been acting as the necessary intervention in times of crisis why transparency is being not paid its due.

 

I list some of my questions which everyone is already aware of and would request a reply. I would request you to not break the bullet and reply each of them separately. Of course! If you are comfortable.

 

==Conference==

 

(a)    Did CIS-A2K organize a conference/meetup in Bengaluru this summer?

(b)   How were the delegates selected and which communities were invited?

(c)    For all those communities who were invited (based on your response to part b) was an official notification sent via village pump, mailing list, reaching out to User Group representatives?

(d)   Is there a legitimate reason to be non-transparent in the process?

(e)    When a former CIS-A2K staff informed you about not maintaining transparency why was still no heed paid to it (if part d of the question is NO)?

(f)     Can reports, learning patterns etc be shared with the community?

(g)    How much funds were involved?

(h)   What were the responsibilities of different CIS-A2K staff during the workshop?

 

 

==Reports==

(a)    What has been stopping CIS-A2K to share their monthly reports on the mailing list and their Report Section of Wikimedia Meta?

(b)   Can we hear about the reports, shortly?

 

 

@Satdeep: I could not find any Meta page but I do find a page which is put under-construction and this mentions you. Were you a part of this? If Yes, I am not able to understand, the entire argument you had posted yesterday about reporting guidelines and transparency.

Only If, You Were A Party to This.

To Everyone, I understand I may be playing the devil’s role here. Some of my close aides have already advised me to stay back since I am damaging my personal reputation.

My argument is simple if my personal image promotes inclusiveness and transparency. I will be happy to remain a soldier fighting.

 

 Abhinav

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